BUFFET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does buffet mean? 

• BUFFET (noun)
  The noun BUFFET has 3 senses:

1. a piece of furniture that stands at the side of a dining room; has shelves and drawers

2. a meal set out on a buffet at which guests help themselves

3. usually inexpensive bar

  Familiarity information: BUFFET used as a noun is uncommon.

• BUFFET (verb)
  The verb BUFFET has 2 senses:

1. strike against forcefully

2. strike, beat repeatedly

  Familiarity information: BUFFET used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BUFFET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A piece of furniture that stands at the side of a dining room; has shelves and drawers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

buffet; counter; sideboard

Hypernyms ("buffet" is a kind of...):

article of furniture; furniture; piece of furniture (furnishings that make a room or other area ready for occupancy)

Meronyms (parts of "buffet"):

drawer (a boxlike container in a piece of furniture; made so as to slide in and out)

shelf (a support that consists of a horizontal surface for holding objects)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buffet"):

credence; credenza (a kind of sideboard or buffet)

cellaret; minibar (sideboard with compartments for holding bottles)

Holonyms ("buffet" is a part of...):

dining-room; dining room (a room used for dining)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A meal set out on a buffet at which guests help themselves

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("buffet" is a kind of...):

meal; repast (the food served and eaten at one time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buffet"):

smorgasbord (an assortment of foods starting with herring or smoked eel or salmon etc with bread and butter; then cheeses and eggs and pickled vegetables and aspics; finally hot foods; served as a buffet meal)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Usually inexpensive bar

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

buffet; snack bar; snack counter

Hypernyms ("buffet" is a kind of...):

bar (a counter where you can obtain food or drink)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buffet"):

commissary (a snack bar in a film studio)

milk bar (snack bar that sells milk drinks and light refreshments (such as ice cream))

• BUFFET (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they buffet    ... he / she / it buffets   
Past simple: buffeted   
Past participle: buffeted   
-ing form: buffeting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Strike against forcefully

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

batter; buffet; knock about

Context example:

Winds buffeted the tent

Hypernyms (to "buffet" is one way to...):

strike (deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Strike, beat repeatedly

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

buff; buffet

Context example:

The wind buffeted him

Hypernyms (to "buffet" is one way to...):

hit (deal a blow to, either with the hand or with an instrument)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

The reason: Horses have been beating pandas to the bamboo buffet.

(Belly up to the bamboo buffet: Pandas vs. horses, NSF)

The question now is whether we should take a premature lunch here, or run our chance of starving before we reach the buffet at Newhaven.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I might be driven into the wide Atlantic and feel all the tortures of starvation or be swallowed up in the immeasurable waters that roared and buffeted around me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

At the further end was a long black buffet or dresser, thickly covered with gold cups, silver salvers, and other such valuables.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They had not the strength to resist the wind, and at times its buffets hurled them off their feet.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

At the same moment there came a sort of dull flapping or buffeting at the window.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Came days of storm, days and nights of storm, when the ocean menaced us with its roaring whiteness, and the wind smote our struggling boat with a Titan’s buffets.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Such a loaded buffet of high-mass X-ray binaries is rare, but Arp 299 is one of the most powerful star-forming galaxies in the nearby Universe.

(Chandra Samples Galactic Goulash, NASA)

Ham watched the sea, standing alone, with the silence of suspended breath behind him, and the storm before, until there was a great retiring wave, when, with a backward glance at those who held the rope which was made fast round his body, he dashed in after it, and in a moment was buffeting with the water; rising with the hills, falling with the valleys, lost beneath the foam; then drawn again to land.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But it did her good, for those whose opinion had real value gave her the criticism which is an author's best education, and when the first soreness was over, she could laugh at her poor little book, yet believe in it still, and feel herself the wiser and stronger for the buffeting she had received.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)